A Paraguan opera from Charleville

A VISITOR to Charleville last week was Miguel Solano Lopez, the great grandson of Eliza Lynch, the national heroine of Paraguay in South America who was born in Charleville in 1833 and baptised in the town’s former Catholic Church in Chapel Street (now the community hall) in 1834.

Mr. Lopez was in Charleville researching the birthplace of his great-grandmother for an opera and stage show that is going to be made on her life in Ireland, France and Paraguay.

Former Paraguayan ambassador to London and Dublin, Mr. Lopez was accompanied by opera expert Dr. Elke Albrecht and they were en route to attending the Wexford Opera Festival, and other business in Dublin also connected with the impending opera production.

While in Charleville he renewed acquaintance with members of Charleville Heritage Society, who were instrumental in erecting the commemorative plaque in memory of Eliza Lynch on the wall of the former church, which Solano unveiled in 2014.

The unveiling was the centrepiece of a weekend of remembrance of the life of Eliza that also launched the Charleville Heritage Society.

Both Mr Solano Lopez and Dr. Albrecht were guests of honour at a dinner in the Charleville Park Hotel hosted by members of the Heritage Society.

Mr. Lopez was delighted to hear that the Society was in the process of providing Charleville with a museum and he promised to provide a memento of Eliza Lynch for display in the facility when it is in place. And, he said he would be back in Charleville again to view such a development.

It will be recalled that Eliza Lynch was the subject of a book on her life by the late Ronan Fanning and former Irish diplomat Michael Lillis, which was launched in Dublin and in the Schoolyard Theatre in Charleville in 2009.

The book contained a photograph of the entry in the parish baptismal register of the baptism of Eliza along with her sponsors, facilitated by the then parish priest, Very Rev. Sean Canon Cotter.